Walking Fine Lines
by Sapphire at Dawn
Summary: The Marauders, in all their glory. With Animagi, the Marauder's Map and girls, fifth year is definitely going to be one to remember.


**_You might recognise this. I took it down a few days ago to edit it, and so here it is, (hopefully) better than before. Enjoy, and please leave a review!_**

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><p>James Potter sauntered across the Entrance Hall as casually as he could, trying to quell the butterflies that were fluttering madly in the pit of his stomach. Out of sight in the Great Hall, he knew his friends were waiting. One slip up and he'd be teased mercilessly for the rest of the year. This <em>had<em> to go well.

'Hey, Evans!' James called to a small group of girls climbing the marble staircase. He watched as they whipped their heads around, almost comically, to stare at him.

'What is it, Potter?' James' target, Lily Evans, called back, detaching herself from the group.

'Come down here a moment,' he said, beckoning to her. 'I want to talk to you.'

He saw her roll her eyes and mutter something to her friends before turning and coming back down the stairs she had just climbed. James leaned against the carved banister in what he hoped was a casual and laid-back manner. The butterflies were making his insides squirm uncomfortably, and he resisted the urge to twist his thumbs about themselves as he always seemed to do when he was nervous. He had to look cool. He had to look like this was a breeze, a comfortable walk in the park. Girls didn't like nervous, blithering idiots. Peter was proof of that, James thought with a snort.

'What's the matter?' she said, coming to a stop a few steps above him.

Merlin, she was pretty, he thought to himself as he watched her descend. Slender, but with slight curves visible beneath her robes. She was regarding him with her brilliant green eyes, and her red hair hung loose about her shoulders today, framing her slightly freckled face. Suddenly, he was glad for his friends' prying questions at breakfast that had led to him confessing that he liked Lily. It had made him more aware of how he felt, made him more aware of just how darn attractive she was, and it had spurred him into action.

Slowly, all doubt was seeping away and even the butterflies seemed to have ceased their incessant dancing. Sirius' words kept echoing around in his mind.

'_You're a bloody Marauder, for Merlin's sake! She's bound to say yes! What have you got going against you?'_

Of course, he was right. James thought back to the end of the previous year when he'd won the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor in their final, fantastic match. How many girls had flirted with him then, or giggled nervously when he walked past, or even asked him out?

'Come on, Potter,' Lily said with a chuckle, bringing James back to the present. 'We haven't got all day. We've got lessons to go to.'

Her grin spurred him on. That and the increasing level of noise from the Great Hall. People were beginning to finish their breakfasts and were chattering to one another before setting off for their first lesson. Soon, the deserted Entrance Hall would be thronged with people. He didn't really mind having an audience, but she might.

'So, Lily,' he began, brimming with confidence. Godric, this was easy! 'You could say that we were friends, right?'

To his ears, it sounded cheesy, but it was all calculated to impress. He needed to be smooth; he needed to win her properly. Girls went in for all that sort of stuff, he remembered. Or, at least, his previous girlfriend, a girl he had dated for a few weeks at the end of last year, had done. He needed to woo Lily with his charm and charisma. He reached a hand up to ruffle his hair, a movement borne of his newfound confidence, but it also occurred to him that it might have given his hair a new edge, like he'd just got off his broomstick. Surely she'd like that.

'I guess so,' she said, looking at him with a puzzled expression on her face. 'What has this got to do with anything?'

She didn't seem to be reciprocating the way the previous girls had, James thought fleetingly. But perhaps she was holding herself back, trying to be a bit more aloof. The others had practically thrown themselves at him. But he had been the big Quidditch hero then, fresh from rescuing Gryffindor from a harrowing defeat, and helping them to regain the Quidditch Cup. He should have noticed her then, he thought with a slight curse. She'd have been all over him, like the others, if he had wanted her to be. But, he decided, he quite liked her distant attitude. It presented more of a challenge, and James was definitely up for that.

'Well, I was just thinking about the next logical step,' he said, with what he hoped was a winning smile.

She stared at him blankly. Merlin, he thought to himself, did he have to make things so _obvious_?

'You see,' he said, his tongue flowing freely, 'you're an incredibly pretty girl, and I'm, well, the hero of the Gryffindor Quidditch team,' he gave her a cheeky wink, 'and I thought it might be a good time to, you know, get together.'

He was really turning on the charm for her, now. If he had been Sirius, he would have said that he was giving Lily 'the ultimate Potter charm'.

'I'm sorry?' Lily said, raising her eyebrow.

'I'm asking you out, Evans,' James said. 'On a date, you know. Boyfriend and girlfriend and all that. Like I said, I think you're incredibly pretty, and I like you. So, what do you say?' He spread his arms, as if to show himself off. 'Do you fancy it?'

He grinned at her, expecting the smile of delight and appreciation that had adorned the faces of the previous girls. But it didn't come. Instead, a look of disgust crossed her face, and she stepped backwards.

'Urgh,' she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. 'I don't think so.'

With one final sound of impatience and revulsion, she turned on her heel and climbed back up the staircase, leaving James standing at the bottom, staring after her retreating back. He felt dumb with shock, unable to call her name, or go after her. What had happened? How could he have failed so drastically? He had tried so hard to charm her, to impress her, but it had all gone so wrong. She was out of sight now, but James remained at the foot of the stairs. His friends would be out any minute to come and find out how it had gone, and ultimately, when the first date would be. He wondered how much they had seen, and whether they had gathered, from the way Lily had stormed off, that it hadn't gone well. None of them had considered that she might say no.

He turned on the spot, looking for somewhere to escape to, somewhere he could let out the rising anger he felt inside. Not back into the Great Hall; it was too cluttered with students. Neither did he want to use the marble staircase. Lily had just disappeared up there, and it just didn't feel right to follow her. But he'd have to go up there sometime; he had a lesson starting in – he checked his watch – ten minutes' time. He sighed. Muggle Studies. Never had he been so glad that Lily wouldn't be in the lesson with him. From behind him came a shriek of laughter. James turned to see a throng of people leaving the Great Hall. Evidently, breakfast had finished. Cursing under his breath, he turned away and began to climb the staircase.

'So, what happened, James?'

It was much later, and both lessons and dinner were over for the day. James and the other three Marauders were sprawled on the ground in a large, torch-lit passageway. This was in fact a secret passageway, concealed behind a large, gilt mirror on the fourth floor. They had discovered it in their second year, and knew from experience that the passage led from the castle and right into Hogsmeade. However, this evening, the temptations of the village held no sway over them. They had more pressing matters at hand.

'I don't know,' James said with a shrug, as he leaned back on his elbows. 'She just said no.'

James hadn't elaborated more than this. He didn't think he could take the humiliation of telling his friends exactly how repulsed by him she seemed to be, or exactly how her face had crumpled with disgust and disdain when she had uttered the words of rejection. It was an image that had plagued his mind all day.

'Intriguing,' Sirius said, a thoughtful expression on his face, but then he sighed and shrugged. 'Oh well, hard luck, mate.'

'A rejection had to come sometime,' said Remus, who was trying, unsuccessfully, to repress a grin. 'You can't go on being Mr Quidditch Hero forever.'

'Until the next match,' Peter said.

'That is an excellent idea,' Sirius said, hauling himself up from where he had been lying on his stomach. 'You play your little heart out against Slytherin next month, emerge the hero, and, bam, the girl's yours. It's a foolproof plan; she won't possibly be able to resist you.'

'You said that this morning,' James said darkly.

'This is better,' Sirius insisted. 'Remember how everyone thought you were amazing last year? If just asking her out doesn't work, you've got to impress her. Trust me, girls like it if you keep at it. Shows you care more. And there's nothing more impressive than winning at Quidditch.'

'Since when have you been so clued up about girls?' James asked, rolling onto his back to stare up at the rocky ceiling of the tunnel.

'I have my experiences,' Sirius said loftily. 'Remember Savillia Epsom last year? I worked away at her for ages before she finally gave in and got the Sirius Black joy ride.'

'You're so crude,' Remus said, but Peter's eyes were wide and he was regarding Sirius with an almost apprehensive look.

'Have you actually... you know... done it?' he whispered.

'Of course he hasn't,' James snapped. 'Don't you think he'd be rushing to us, bragging his arse off, if he actually did? He wouldn't be able to keep it to himself. A snog's as far as he's ever been, just like the rest of us.'

'Cheers, James,' Sirius said, throwing James a sly look. 'I've got to keep up my cred, you know, even in front of you lot.'

'You're an arse, Sirius,' Remus said. 'I think we should get back to the matter at hand; James' Quidditch plan for Lily.'

'It does sound like an idea,' James said. He allowed his mind to wander. He could see himself in his mind's eye, soaring up and down the pitch, putting away goal after goal, while Evans looked on admiringly... Surely that would work. He imagined the after-party in the common room, the Butterbeer, the music, the dimmed lights as she leaned in closer...

'Snap out of that daydream, Potter,' Sirius said, clicking his fingers at James. 'We've done enough nattering, let's get down to business.'

Feeling his cheeks burn, James leaped up to try and cover his embarrassment and strode over to a cast iron chest, half concealed in a niche in the wall. Hidden within were the books and potion ingredients they used to research their Animagus transformations.

Try as they might, they had not been able to find a spell they alone could activate. They had deemed it necessary to conceal the contents of the trunk since several of the potion ingredients were only used by students studying at the highest level in Potions and awkward questions would be asked if it was discovered. They had tried to devise a spell of their own, but it had been disastrous, ending in the trunk welding itself shut for a week and a half while emitting large, purple bubbles. In the end they had given up and used the standard _Alohamora _charm on it, hoping that if anyone ever came down this way, they wouldn't notice an old, battered chest half hidden in the wall.

As he rummaged around among the musty books that smelled faintly of the dried herbs they used, James could remember well the day that he, Sirius and Peter had decided to become Animagi. As naive twelve-year-olds, they had had no idea of the hard work and effort that they would have to put in, or that nearly three years on, none of them would even know what sort of animal they would become. He smiled as he remembered their optimism, and Sirius' assertion that they would all be fully-fledged Animagi by the end of the year. The amount of work they'd had to do hadn't put them off, though, and it seemed that every time Remus had returned to lessons a day or two after full moon looking tired, and, sometimes, with a couple of nearly-healed wounds, they'd be spurred on and would redouble their efforts.

The process had began with plenty of reading; none of them really had had an inkling of what the transformations might require, or how it could be done, so they had needed to do quite a lot of research into the field beforehand. In those few weeks, the four of them had spent more time in the library than they had in their entire school career since. They had quickly decided that they attracted far too much attention, and that checking out too many books on the subject had aroused the suspicions of the overly-curious librarian. She had put all sorts of charms and jinxes on the books, so they couldn't risk damaging one that might give away their location, or what they were up to.

They had quickly divided the books into two categories: those that were useful and those that were not. They had then decided to pool their pocket money, and with the vast amounts that James, and, sometimes, Sirius, received, had bought a fair few of the books on their 'useful' list. Remus had insisted on chipping in, because, even though he would not be studying the transformation, as he said, he was the cause of it. At first, James and Sirius had protested, but once they had realised just how much some of the books cost, his contributions had been gratefully accepted. They had tactfully refrained from asking Peter for money. His mother had little money to spare, and so it was a rare thing that Peter came to school with anything more than a Galleon or two for the year. Yet Peter gave what he could, even if it was just a few Sickles.

One of the first stages of the transformation was to find out what sort of animal they would each become, and to do this, they needed to enter a trance-like state that allowed a sort of heightened sensitivity. In the beginning, they had needed to chew a certain ingredient, whilst inhaling the smoke from smouldering herbs and other plants to enter into the trance. There had been some near misses with this, including once when Peter had become so sick that they had had to take him to the hospital wing. Luckily, not many questions had been asked, and they had managed to pass it off that Peter had simply not washed his hands after a Potions detention.

Now, in their fifth year, they were practiced at this, and so they needed only a small amount of herbs to induce it.

'Remus, will you get the fire going?' Sirius asked as he delved into the trunk and rummaged around for the herbs.

Remus, as the only one of the four who wasn't undertaking a transformation, was their mediator. It was his job to replenish the supply of herbs, and to act quickly if anything went wrong.

'One of us has to get this thing nailed soon,' Sirius was saying as he threw bunches of dried herbs at Remus. 'I'm _sure_ I saw something last time, but then it vanished and I couldn't get it back. But it was definitely big.'

James snorted. 'You sure it wasn't just your ego flashing before your eyes?' he said.

Sirius threw a bunch of lovage at James in reply. Tease Sirius though he might, James was also sure that something had been happening the past few goes, though he had thought he had heard something, rather than seen it. He wondered if he'd get anything at all this time, with his head so full of Lily.

'I've never heard or seen anything,' Peter said in a worried voice. 'It's just blankness.'

'I'm sure you'll get there soon,' James said with a sigh. '_We've_ only just started to; it might take a bit longer for you.'

But Peter still looked worried as they settled down in a circle around the smouldering fire Remus had built. One by one, they closed their eyes and began to inhale the smoke deeply, steadying their breathing and relaxing their muscles.

To his intense surprise, James had only been under for a few seconds when the noise he had heard previously started up again. It was a sort of shuffling noise, perhaps of leaves, followed by a hollow _clack. _James concentrated, willing himself to focus solely on it. The _clack_ came again, as did the sound of something large and heavy moving across a soft surface. James counted four beats as the sound appeared to walk forward, and suddenly, a large bulk appeared in his mind's eye, though James could not work out what it was. Again came the clacking noise, followed by a loud, guttural bray that startled James so much, he nearly lost his concentration completely.

_Come on, come forward, walk forward_, he thought to himself, pushing all of his effort and concentration into willing the thing to reveal itself. Suddenly, the fog seemed to lift in his mind, and he could see a forest. The sound of the animal's feet pawing at the ground was growing louder and louder, and all of a sudden, a magnificent animal appeared from behind a tall oak tree.

'A stag!' James shouted, slipping suddenly from his trance. 'I'm a stag!'


End file.
